Well as long as you did your best!Amherst Mistakes Cost Taxpayers $4,000+
Posted by: Stefan Mychajliw, Reporter
Created: 5/10/2007 5:19:47 PM
Updated: 5/10/2007 5:25:44 PM
2 On Your Side has learned The Town of Amherst was late paying money owed to the IRS, and spent thousands of taxpayer dollars in late fees and penalties.
Dating back to the year 2003, the Town of Amherst paid a total of $79,817 to the Internal Revenue Service.
Most recently, the Town had to send the IRS a payment of $56,319.54.
And because those payments were late, the Town had to pay a total of $4,335.21 in interest and penalties.
2 On Your Side's Stefan Mychajliw: "Ultimately, mistakes were made that cost taxpayers money."
Town of Amherst Comptroller Frank Bellioti: "You're talking about three, four thousand dollars, out of a more than 100-million dollar budget. What do you want us to watch?"
Mychajliw: "All of it. Every single penny."
Bellioti: "Every single penny? So no backing the truck up unless you check to see what you're doing. No running over mailboxes while you're plowing snow?"
Mychajliw: "Ideally, sure."
Bellioti: "No missing out on giving somebody a ticket for not plowing their sidewalk?"
Mychajliw: "But is that good enough? When you're dealing with taxpayer dollars? Is that good enough to say 'things happen, it's the cost of doing business?'"
Bellioti: "That's your statement. People did the best they could. And that's all you can expect from anybody?"
2 On Your Side is committed to holding government officials accountable for how they handle your taxpayer dollars.
We will have more on our special "You Paid For It" investigative series coming up on Channel 2 News Tonight at 11:00 PM.
I saw the interview and the comptroller was tap dancng. Who exactly screwed up? You know it was him and you know nothing will happen to him and it will be made to look like some junior member of the department made a mistake.
Never saw him before but he acts like a real peice of work. His attitude sucks. Does anyone know how we ended up with him and if he can be dumped before he makes more costly mistakes. Please tell me he's not civil service and permanent.
You must be delighted!!!!Originally Posted by Surface Tension
No amount of bad news is unwelcome for you guys....
He is not civil service. He is appointed for a definite term and must be reappointed. I believe it is a 2 year term. He hasn't even completed the first year yet. The man has no idea how to do the Town's budget - which is his job. He says it ISN'T his job. Funny, all previous comptrollers were responsible for doing the budget. He took this job to get a few more years toward retirement. He sure is a piece of work.
Stefan is a Registered Republican. Do you think he is unbiased in his reporting?Well as long as you did your best!
Talk about screwed up.
Amherst; the new Buffalo.
Let's see. How can we make this Satish's fault????
Come on, guys -- you can do it!
Yes. I doubt he gives a hoot about Amherst.
Yes. I doubt he gives a hoot about Amherst.
Then why do you think he spends so much time covering Amherst while throwing softball questions are Mohan and Weinstein?
Stefan doesn't seem to spend much time in the Tonawandas, Cheektowaga, West Seneca does he?
Maybe he spends time in Amherst because it is the biggest town. As for the others, how much ground is the guy supposed to cover? I truly doubt he gives a hoot about any of the towns or the people involved in governing them. Really, reporters rarely have a personal agenda like that. Why would they bother? Most have no interest in working in government. The MSM here pays better and has more avenues for advancement if you are a good reporter.
The main goal of real reporters is looking for the next good story.................
That depends, is he reporting a fact or a lie?
Doesn't ANYONE who lives in Amherst even care about the 'issue' of this post?
The bottom line is (if you are indeed from Amherst) this is going to COST us money.
Penalties and fines that should NOT have happened.
We need to go to the next town board meeting and VOICE our opinion, that is NOT acceptable. This should NOT have happened. And WHY are we JUST finding out about it now. From my understanding there were mistakes in 2005 (not Comptrollre's fault) that were not corrected until last month (that IS comptroller's fault).
Exactly what ARE the comptroller's functions? (if not to help prepare the budget and MAKE SURE that things are filed in a timely manner?)
IF it is NOT his job, then these jobs need to be delegated, NOT IGNORED.
And as far as reporting goes..do you really think Stephan just gets to'pick' what needs reporting and 'where' he gets to go? No reporter does. I'm sure he goes where he is told to go. And yesterday it happened to be Amherst.
More appropriate would be: "Stefan works for Ch. 2, do you think he is unbiased in his reporting?"
This has nothing to do with Stefan being a Democrat or Republican; it has to do with ratings. Ever since Mohan got into office, Amherst is where the stories are because people want to see how he is doing. And when the story isn't specifically about him, they will find a way to make it about him. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a follow up story interviewing Satish as to what he thinks.
They do not care about holding government officials accountable because Ch. 2 cares about your tax dollars; they do it because they care about their ratings. Do you think Scott Brown cared about your tax dollars when he was in the Gorski administration?? Or magically when he became a reporter for Ch. 2 his outlook changed and he had the "Saul to Paul" epiphany??
Nice try on the spin. The fact is that your bimbo Carol knew and she didnt want the pheasents to find out. You clowns made her sound like a saint who got screwed last year. Now the controller he was a piece of work. Its only $6,000.
No, Carroll received an opinion from the Town Atty that this issue was private town business. She was trying to get the situation looked at without going public and getting the 'whistleblower' title. She acted in good faith because she saw something verrrry wrong; she assumed that Mohan would want to take care of the situation. After all, he is the head guy. He is in charge. Doesn't the buck stop at his desk?
Mohan left the finance dept without a leader too, too long. That situation is definately Mohan's fault. Mr. Bellioti is not up to the job he was hired to do. The "trickle down" theory is finally apon us. Most of us are not surprised.
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